The present application relates to a physical delivery system, and more specifically, to determining topological connectivity and relative distances from temporal sensor measurements of the physical delivery system.
A physical delivery system includes a pipeline system that delivers fluids, such as liquid and/or gas. For example, a gas pipeline system to deliver gas, which is used as fuel for heating, cooling, or any other purpose, is a physical delivery system. In the U.S. alone, there are about 91,000 miles of gas pipelines, and 99% of the gas delivery in the U.S. is through the gas pipeline delivery system. In a physical delivery system, such as one that delivers natural gas, there may be delays between a supply node and a delivery node, for example because natural gas is compressible. For example, in case of natural gas, to meet an expected demand for gas, a compressor station may pump gas ahead of the actual demand occurrence. The physical delivery system includes a network of pipes, that may be represented as a tree structure, with a compressor operating at a root node and trunk lines to maintain the pressure and flowrate across multiple delivery points in the tree structure.